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Riff Tone
Hole In the Sky
Black Sabbath
Guitarmetal1970s
Original Gear
Guitar1965 Gibson SG Special (heavily modified, likely with John Birch custom pickups, possibly P-90 or custom humbucker, as used by Tony Iommi on Sabotage)
AmpLaney Supergroup 100-watt head (early 1970s, likely LA100BL) into multiple Laney 4x12 cabinets
Amp Settings
gain7
bass6
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Notes
Studio recording, Sabotage album (1975). Guitar tuned to C# standard. No evidence of live/touring rig for this specific recording. Treble booster (Dallas Rangemaster, possibly modified) likely used as a front-end boost. No evidence of fuzz or modulation/time-based effects on the riff section.
Tone Character(10)
tight, percussive palm-muted riffaggressive, saturated distortioncrushing, riff-driven hard rockmid-heavy British crunchraw, gritty texturearticulate attackfocused, punchy rhythmminimal ambienceslightly scooped highsdense, powerful low end
Difficulty
The riff requires tight, aggressive palm muting, fast alternate picking, and syncopated rhythm, making it moderately challenging for intermediate players.
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Create Free AccountGuitarmetal1970s
Original Gear
Guitar1965 Gibson SG Special (heavily modified, likely with John Birch custom pickups, possibly P-90 or custom humbucker, as used by Tony Iommi on Sabotage)
AmpLaney Supergroup 100-watt head (early 1970s, likely LA100BL) into multiple Laney 4x12 cabinets
Amp Settings
gain7
bass6
Create an account to see all tone details
Create Free AccountEffects & Signal Chain
Notes
Studio recording, Sabotage album (1975). Guitar tuned to C# standard. No evidence of live/touring rig for this specific recording. Treble booster (Dallas Rangemaster, possibly modified) likely used as a front-end boost. No evidence of fuzz or modulation/time-based effects on the riff section.
Tone Character(10)
tight, percussive palm-muted riffaggressive, saturated distortioncrushing, riff-driven hard rockmid-heavy British crunchraw, gritty texturearticulate attackfocused, punchy rhythmminimal ambienceslightly scooped highsdense, powerful low end
Difficulty
The riff requires tight, aggressive palm muting, fast alternate picking, and syncopated rhythm, making it moderately challenging for intermediate players.